Kasey Choma set the tone early — in both halves — and No. 12 Notre Dame never trailed in a 16-12 win over No. 3 North Carolina in South Bend, Ind. The win snapped the reigning national champion Tar Heels’ Atlantic Coast Conference winning streak at 27 games, with the last loss also coming in South Bend, a 9-7 setback in 2019.
On Saturday, Choma scored just over a minute into the contest to give the Irish the early lead. North Carolina’s star freshman Marissa White tied it up soon after, but then Notre Dame scored three straight goals and led for the remainder of the game.
A goal by Madison Ahern with 31 seconds left in the first half gave Notre Dame a 9-4 halftime advantage.
Choma scored just 44 seconds into the second half to give the Irish a 10-4 lead, its biggest advantage in the game.
North Carolina answered, scoring four straight goals including a pair of free position shots by Caitlyn Wurzburger, to get within 10-8 with 4:49 left in the third quarter. But the Irish would allow UNC to get no closer. Back-to-back goals by Kristen Shanahan and Choma put Notre Dame up four and Carolina (9-2, 5-1 ACC) trailed by at least three the rest of the way.
Ahern scored a game-high five goals for Notre Dame (8-3, 4-2 ACC), including three goals in the fourth quarter to help salt the game away. Ahern now has 198 points in her career, including 140 goals.
Choma and Kelly Denes each had hat tricks and Denes had eight draw controls, helping Notre Dame to a significant advantage in the circle (21-11). Mary Kelly Doherty had a goal, two assists and nine draw controls for the Irish.
White and Wurzburger were two of five Carolina players with a pair of goals, joining Caroline Godine, Alyssa Long and Sophie Student. Six of North Carolina’s 12 goals came on free position shots.
